Door:  Here he affected to survey the whole House, bow’d and smil’d at random, and then shew’d his Teeth, which were some of them indeed very white:  After this he retired behind the Curtain, and obliged us with several Views of his Person from every Opening.

During the Time of Acting, he appear’d frequently in the Princes Apartment, made one at the Hunting-match, and was very forward in the Rebellion.  If there were no Injunctions to the contrary, yet this Practice must be confess’d to diminish the Pleasure of the Audience, and for that Reason presumptuous and unwarrantable:  But since her Majesty’s late Command has made it criminal,[2] you have Authority to take Notice of it.

  SIR, Your humble Servant,

  Charles Easy.

T.

[Footnote 1:  Beaumont and Fletchers Philaster had been acted on the preceding Friday, Nov. 30.  The Hunt is in the Fourth Act, the Rebellion in the Fifth.]

[Footnote 2:  At this time there had been added to the playbills the line

  By her Majesty’s Command no Person is to be admitted behind the
  Scenes.]

* * * * *

No. 241.  Thursday, December 6, 1711.  Addison.

 —­Semperque relinqui
  Sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur
  Ire viam—­

  Virg.

  Mr. SPECTATOR,

Though you have considered virtuous Love inmost of its Distresses, I do not remember that you have given us any Dissertation upon the Absence of Lovers, or laid down any Methods how they should support themselves under those long Separations which they are sometimes forced to undergo.  I am at present in this unhappy Circumstance, having parted with the best of Husbands, who is abroad in the Service of his Country, and may not possibly return for some Years.  His warm and generous Affection while we were together, with the Tenderness which he expressed to me at parting, make his Absence almost insupportable.  I think of him every Moment of the Day, and meet him every Night in my Dreams.  Every thing I see puts me in mind of him.  I apply myself with more than ordinary Diligence to the Care of his Family and his Estate; but this, instead of relieving me, gives me but so many Occasions of wishing for his Return.  I frequent the Rooms where I used to converse with him, and not meeting him there, sit down in his Chair, and fall a weeping.  I love to read the Books he delighted in, and to converse with the Persons whom he esteemed.  I visit his Picture a hundred times a Day, and place myself over-against it whole Hours together.  I pass a great part of my Time in the Walks where I used to lean upon his Arm, and recollect in my Mind the Discourses which have there passed between us:  I look over the several Prospects and Points of View which we used to survey together, fix my Eye